Binge-worthy: A sexual revolution via the kitchen in Lessons In Chemistry
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In Lessons In Chemistry, actress Brie Larson is a scientist who gains fame as a television cooking show host.
PHOTO: APPLE TV+
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Lessons In Chemistry
Premieres on Friday on Apple TV+
3 out of 5 stars
Set in 1950s and 1960s America, the Apple TV+ miniseries Lessons In Chemistry casts Oscar winner Brie Larson as a scientist whose dream of publishing her research is crushed by her sexist male bosses.
But then she stumbles into a job hosting a television cooking show and uses it to teach housewives about science – and much more.
Here are a few reasons to tune in to the drama, which is based on the 2022 novel of the same name by Bonnie Garmus.
1. Feminist fairy tale
The lazy take on the “strong, empowered woman” trope is often just as formulaic as the damsels in distress that came before.
The protagonist is usually brilliant, but socially dysfunctional. And she is kept down by the patriarchy before she ultimately triumphs.
And so it is with Elizabeth Zott (Larson), who works as a lowly technician in a laboratory full of men who expect her to make their coffee even though she is smarter than them.
Star researcher Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman), however, teams up with her to do ground-breaking research, but their bosses refuse to put her name on the work.
And it would be just another feminist fable if not for the fact this really does happen – such as when British chemist Rosalind Franklin went uncredited for her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA.
2. Foodie romance
When she is not running secret experiments at work, Zott uses her kitchen as a laboratory and approaches cooking with the same rigour.
As a romance with Calvin blooms, he gets to sample all her glorious cooking, and the viewer is treated to close-ups of these moreish mid-century meals – stews, roasts and pies.
She basically woos him with her science and her cooking, which is both extremely progressive and terribly old-fashioned.
3. A sexual revolution via the kitchen
American actress Larson – who won an Oscar for the drama Room (2015) and will return to the big screen as Captain Marvel in the upcoming superhero movie The Marvels – plays Zott with that robotic flatness of affect that is shorthand for “brainiac savant”.
But it softens when she is with loved ones, and becomes the star of a cooking show and an unlikely heroine for its viewers, whom she encourages to follow their dreams and stand up for what is right.
Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson) works as a lowly technician in a laboratory full of men who expect her to make their coffee even though she is smarter than them.
PHOTO: APPLE TV+
Overall, Lessons In Chemistry is a bit of an odd duck – an attempt at elevated “chick lit” that also features a bizarre section in which a tragedy is narrated by a dog.
But if you are in the mood for a spot of romance or sexual revolution, it is a fun variation on the usual tropes.
